Johnny Suede

Johnny Suede is a 1991 American film the directorial debut of Tom DiCillo, and stars Brad Pitt, Catherine Keener, Calvin Levels and Nick Cave. Synopsis Johnny Suede is a young man with an attitude and an immense pompadour, who aspires to be a rock n' roll star like his idol Ricky Nelson. He believes he has all the stylistic accoutrements sans a pair of black suede shoes. One night a pair of black suede shoes mysteriously appear, landing on top of the telephone booth he was using. Shortly there afterwards, Johnny meets Darlette, a sultry bohemian with whom he sleeps. Despite Darlette's jealous and abusive gun-toting boyfriend, Johnny see Darlette daily. The destitute Johnny is forced to pawn his guitar to pay his rent while Darlette mysteriously vanishes. Johnny's friend Deke lends him the money to get his guitar back from the pawnshop, and the duo form a band. Sad and depressed about Darlette's desertion, Johnny wanders around New York aimlessly until he meets Yvonne, a woman more intelligent than Johnny. Yvonne teaches him that there are things in life much more important than a pair of black suede shoes. Cast Production Around 1985, while taking acting classes in New York City, Tom DiCillo was impressed with the local punk movement and the resurgence of rockabilly led by acts like Elvis Costello, The Stray Cats and The Clash. Spinning personal experiences into monologues, he created a character whose vulnerability is obscured by a superficial fifties era cool, exaggerated to the point of foolishness. DiCillo first wove what he had into a one-hour one-man show, before setting the first draft of the screenplay to paper. Eight months later he had completed the fourth draft. Having received positive feedback from his friend Jim Jarmusch, DiCillo approached German television, ZDF, who gave him eighty thousand dollars. Additional funding came from the National Endowment for the Arts for twenty-five thousand dollars, as well as a Panavision package and help with the script from the Sundance Lab. Around 1988 to 1989, while at the Cannes Film Festival, DiCillo stumbled into a deal with a South African producer wherein he sold worldwide rights to his film for three hundred thousand dollars; an arrangement he would later call, "A shaky thing but still I felt it was worth the risk so I decided to go ahead with it."